


Election Night

by mackenziemchale



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Annoyed Mac, F/M, Fighting, Happy Ending, Love, Romance, mentions of Nina, upset mac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:22:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23695366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mackenziemchale/pseuds/mackenziemchale
Summary: The small window abruptly closed after Charlotte left with her parents and Mac left on her break with Sloan to go vote. Both were fine with waiting in a line, it was small when they arrived and yet somehow they ended up having to wait for over an hour to vote. This only spurred her annoyance further, election day was a very busy one at the newsroom and she had a million things she needed to get done before the show.
Relationships: Will McAvoy/MacKenzie McHale
Comments: 10
Kudos: 11





	Election Night

November 3rd, 2016.

Quite possibly the worst day ever so far. Okay, maybe that a little dramatic but Mackenzie had so many things piling up one after the other that she was despising this day. First it started with Will neglecting to do the laundry before he came to bed last night like she nagged him to do a million times. Whatever, it was a small thing and something she’d get over. They’d argue over chores here and there and it was nothing to get worked up about. 

She came to work annoyed with him, but it didn’t stop there. Next it was the babysitter for Charlotte calling and saying she had to leave for an emergency. Mac tried to call Will to go and pick up their daughter so that  _ someone _ would have their eyes on her while she got a hold of her parents to come watch their granddaughter. Of course though, he was in a meeting with the 44th floor which only spiraled her annoyance. It wasn’t that she could exactly hold it against him, but it only piled on top of her day.

Mac dropped everything to go to their apartment and relieve the babysitter, bringing their two year old back into the newsroom. Thankfully, Tess and Kendra were more than happy to give Mac time to finish what she had been doing and call her parents. Since they lived out of the city, they were a bit of a drive away or else they would’ve already been watching Charlotte. 

There was a small window of relief and peace in her day while she spent time with her daughter. Though taking care of a two year old while trying to work as the president of the news division wasn’t the easiest to balance, it was somehow the most stress free part of her day. Plus, she loved Charlotte more than anything in the world so spending extra time with her always made Mackenzie’s day. 

The small window abruptly closed after Charlotte left with her parents and Mac left on her break with Sloan to go vote. Both were fine with waiting in a line, it was small when they arrived and yet somehow they ended up having to wait for over an hour to vote. This only spurred her annoyance further, election day was a very busy one at the newsroom and she had a million things she needed to get done before the show. 

Mac tried to just let her annoyance go and focus on the work she had to get done. Not only was she trying to not think about all the small annoying things that had happened so far today, but also she was trying to not think too much about this election. She was terrified of how things were going to go. There has never been a candidate like Donald Trump and she had a very bad feeling he was going to be the one elected into office.

The one thing she had enjoyed most this election season was watching Will tear Trump to shreds almost daily. Sure lots of politicians have lied in the past, but he was just a whole new level of that. It angered Will to no end, especially as he was witnessing the direction of the party he once identified with go in such a horrible one. He didn’t even like to associate with the republican party anymore, but he didn’t identify completely with democrats either. Will had always been more in the middle of the political spectrum, even though he was registered as a republican. Now he had been pushed even further away from a party alliance. 

The real moment that was Mac’s breaking point in her day was when Sloan came into her office asking if she had seen the cover of TMI this week. 

Mac had answered no because she didn’t give a damn what TMI was reporting on and they hadn’t done a story on anyone in the newsroom in years. 

Sloan told her to think again and then placed the magazine down on her desk. On the front page of the magazine were pictures of Will with TMI’s own Nina Howard. They were trying to make it out to be that Will was cheating on Mackenzie and this was the proof.

It was a real “what the fuck?” moment for her. Not because she believed anything TMI wrote, that he was cheating, because she knew he would never. It was because she had no idea he met up with Nina to begin with. He never once mentioned it to her.

Had it been someone else Mac would be okay with it, but Nina Howard? What did he want to do with her? 

Learning this was Mac’s tipping point and since there was no time for her to confront Will the hours leading up until now, the rundown meeting, had been spent with her bossing around a lot of people more than usual. She turned harsher and everyone in the newsroom knew she was upset. 

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The rundown meeting comes to a halt as Will takes Mac out of the room after a harsh comment she had made at him. Now their shouting and arguing had filled the newsroom, causing everyone to stop and stare.

“Are they seriously fighting on one of the busiest days of the year for us?” Neal questions.

“I wouldn’t expect any less” Tamara remarks as she looks up from her notepad.

“It’s probably over Will being on the cover of TMI with Nina Howard” Tess chimes in.

“What?” Neal’s face grows confused when she says that. He figured TMI was done messing with ACN.

Tess passes over the magazine to Neal and he becomes more confused as he reads the headline. “Will McAvoy caught cheating on wife and president of the news division at ACN, Mackenzie McHale? She doesn’t really believe this does she?”

Kendra looks up and past Neal at Will and Mackenzie, who were still going at it. “I don’t think it’s that, Mac’s been in a bad mood all day.”

Their conversation is suddenly cut short when Jim interrupts, “okay enough gossip about our bosses. Can we all get back to putting the show that goes on in a few hours together?”

The staff gets right back to work, meanwhile Mac steps back and the shouting suddenly stops. She didn’t even know what they were shouting about anymore. “I’m done here, I have too much work to get done before tonight’s show and I’m not going to continue putting on a show for our staff. We’ll talk later” she concludes and walks away from Will.

Before going to her office, Mac makes a stop in the conference room where the rundown meeting was being held. “Everyone,” she announces, “I would just like to apologize for what you saw out there. It was unprofessional considering I’m the one in charge, I’m sorry.”

She steps out of the room and doesn’t even glance in Will’s direction as she makes her way up to her office. She was still very much upset with Will for not having told her about meeting with Nina and all of the other things that had piled up today still kept her mood sour. It was her hope that nothing else would go wrong in the next few hours or she felt like she could really blow another gasket. 

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Five minutes until air, Mackenzie was in the control room and chatting with Herb about the show. As she’s talking Kendra interrupts, “Mac your mom is on the line, she says it’s about Charlotte.”

She excuses herself right away and walks over to Kendra, taking the phone and stepping toward the door, “Mum?”

“Mackenzie, I’m sorry to call right before the show starts but Charlotte won’t go to sleep. We’ve tried everything and she just won’t. What can I do?”

Relief washes through her as she hears it was just that Charlotte wouldn’t sleep. It could’ve been much worse and getting her to sleep was easy to handle. “Put her on the phone and let me talk to her,” Mac insists.

Her mother does as she asks and she begins talking again, “Hi princess.”

“Mommy!” Charlotte squeals on the other end, bringing the smile to Mac’s face. The only other time she had smiled today was when she spent a little over an hour with Charlotte while she waited on her parents.

“Sweetheart, I know you miss daddy and me very much but we’ll be home soon. I promise.”

“Okay…” 

“Will you do mummy a favor and get some sleep? Before you know it mummy and daddy will be back” she persuades.

There’s a pause before she answers, “I want daddy” she complains.

Mac looks over at the monitors and sighs, Will was prepping for the show with Sloan and Elliot and she wasn’t sure if it was best to interrupt him. She certainly wasn’t going to be the one to do it. She was still mad at him. 

“Daddy’s a little busy right now sweetheart. I promise we’ll make it up to you tomorrow. We love you so very much. Can you give the phone back to grams?”

Thankfully Charlotte seemed to listen and her mother was back on the line a second later, “any suggestions to lull her to sleep?”

“Try reading a few stories from the bookshelf by her bed. She usually falls asleep after one, if not halfway through a second.” Mac then looks back over at the rest of the control room and realizes that it wasn’t much longer until they were on. “Mum I’m sorry I’m going to have to let you go, we’re on here in a few and I have some things left to do beforehand.”

“Alright I’ll see you soon, goodbye Mackenzie.”

“Goodbye mum, I love you” Mac replies. Her mother replies with an I love you as well before the two hang up. 

She lets out a breath before going over to Jim, “are we all set?” she questions as she resituates her headset.

“All ready to go. How’s Charlie?”

“Hopefully about to fall asleep, but good.”

He nods and the two direct their attention to the monitors as the cameraman begins to countdown and Will begins the show. 

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Mackenzie lets out a sigh as she finishes up paperwork in her office. It was late, well past one in the morning. It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to being up this late but after the way the day had gone and the election, all of it was weighing heavy on her. Not to mention she and Will still had to have a conversation about this whole him meeting up Nina Howard and not telling her situation. 

Will was currently in his office getting changed out of his suit from the show. It had run well past midnight as everyone tried to deal with the results. No one had actually expected him to win. Will, Sloan, and Elliot all tried to discuss this win but they were all at a loss for words. Jim and Mac couldn’t help much either, because truth be told even if they were afraid he would be elected, it wasn’t what they expected.

It was at least another ten minutes before he was knocking on her door. “Can I come in or am I still on the couch tonight?”

Mac looks up from work and takes off her glasses, “you might be off the couch if you explain to me why you’re on the cover of TMI with Nina Howard.” She was still upset with him, but not as much as she had been.

Will’s face contorts in confusion, “what?”

She reaches over to her left and grabs the magazine Sloan had brought in earlier. The magazine lands on her desk making a ‘plop’ sound as she tosses it down. 

He approaches the desk and grabs the magazine, “ah shit…” he mutters.

Will then sets magazine back down and walks over to the other side of the room, rubbing his forehead as he feels the beginnings of a headache. 

Mac gets up from her desk and walks around toward the front of it, “well? Are you going to explain why the hell you were meeting with Nina? Why didn't you tell me?”

He’s quiet for a few seconds before he lets out a sigh, “I met up with Nina because she was going to run a story on us and Charlie.”

She crosses her arms, “what story?”

“I don’t think you really want to know Mac” Will says and turns back in her direction. 

Mackenzie approaches him, her mind racing with a million different insane stories that TMI would come up with. They were pretty good at whipping up a story out of nothing. “Tell me,” she insists. 

“They were planning on running a story based on a rumor that Charlotte isn’t mine and they were going to put pictures of her in the story. It was going to be a cover story” Will explains. They had done a pretty good job since Charlotte was born of keeping her face out of the eye of the public. It was for her protection and thankfully only a handful of pictures of her existed out there.

She stares at him for a few moments, that was it, that was just the cherry on top of her day. Mac turns away and begins to walk away from him, “GOD!” she shouts. 

“That’s completely and utterly-” she shakes her head and makes a fist, she badly wanted to punch something but knew she wasn’t going to. “That’s a load of bullshit!”

Will watches as his wife blows a gasket, he wanted to interject but it was probably best to just let her get out of all of the anger

Mac meanwhile, still completely and utterly pissed about the story and everything else that happened today, goes over to her desk and sends the magazine flying across the room. “UTTER BULLSHIT!” she shouts.

The magazine hits the wall with a thud and she then steps back and lands against her desk, suddenly going quiet. A hand comes up to her forehead and she lets out a breath as she controls her feelings again. 

“Are you done?” Will questions a few seconds later from the same place on the other side of the room. 

“Yeah” Mac replies in a much softer tone.

She then looks back up as he begins to walk over, “why didn’t you tell me you were going to meet with her? Or about the story?”

When Will reaches her, he takes both of her hands into his own, “I was going to, I was just waiting to get word that the story had been officially killed. As for not telling you about it… well I didn’t know how because I thought you’d be mad…. just not  _ that _ mad.”

She sighs and looks down, “I’m sorry for completely losing it. It wasn’t just about the story… this day has completely sucked except for the time I spent with Charlie.”

Will looks at her for a moment before he pulls her into a hug, pulling her in tight. He doesn’t say anything at first, just trying to get her to let go of some of the stress of the day if that was at all possible.

Mac rests her head down on his shoulder and squeezes him tight. She could feel some of her stress beginning to disappear as they held each other. Another sigh comes from her before she speaks again, “I still don’t like that you didn’t tell me” she says quietly. 

“I know” he whispers then pulls back, “why don’t I make it up to you?”

“How? Are you going to punch the writer who wrote the story about us?”

Will laughs, “if you want me to, I’ll beat them up for you sure.”

She shakes her head, “no there’s no use, they’ll get what’s coming to them.” Mac then looks back up at him, “what was your idea?”

“Well, what if we finally take that honeymoon we never got to go on?” He suggests as a hand rubs down her back. 

“A honeymoon?” If Mac was honest, that sounded like the greatest idea in the world right now. Just the two of them on a romantic week long trip in a beautiful city, that was all she could ask for. However, it didn’t seem possible to just up and leave for a week. 

Will nods, “yeah, you and me wherever you wanna go. Paris, Hawaii, Rome, Milan, Bora Bora, the Maldives, anywhere. You just name the place and we’ll go.”

She sighs, knowing there was probably only a one percent change they could make that happen. “Oh honey, those all sound so wonderful… As much as I want to go on a honeymoon with you considering we were deprived of that… I don’t know. I’m the president and you’re the face of the network… leaving for a week isn’t so simple.”

“We did it after Charlie was born, we were gone a whole lot longer than two weeks” he points out. 

“Yeah but that was a parental leave and because we had a newborn. Charlie’s another factor, who’s gonna take care of her while we’re gone? I hate to leave her…”

“How about this, you leave Jim in charge while we’re gone and postpone any important meetings until you’re back. Sloan can anchor for me just like she did while we were on leave. If necessary, Don can help Jim where it’s needed. We’ll have your parents watch Charlotte for a few days and then they’ll trade off with my mom. As for us, we’ll be soaking up every second of our getaway together.”

“Billy, your mum lives in Nebraska” Mac points out. 

He shrugs, “so I’ll fly her out. She’ll watch Charlie at our place the first few days and then your parents will watch her for the rest of the week at our place or theirs.”

“I don’t know…” she trails off. She really wanted to go, but it was hard for her to just let go of thinking about all of the responsibilities they had. 

Will pulls her in tighter, “come on…” he then leans down and presses a kiss to her shoulder. “Just think about it,” his lips begin to trail gentle kisses along her shoulder and toward her neck. “You and me…” he presses a kiss to her neck, “all alone for a week, doing whatever we want,” another kiss in the same spot, “whenever we want” another, this time he lightly nips at her skin.

That sends a chill straight down her spine. Mac could feel her knees becoming weaker as he kept kissing. Her eyes fall closed and she brings one hand up to his hair, lightly gripping at it. “Mm… when you put it like that…” she pauses as he begins unbuttoning the blue shirt she had on, “it’s rather tempting…”

With her shirt completely unbuttoned, Will pushes it off her shoulder and guides it off of her. He then picks her up and sets her down on the desk behind her, “for now I think I should get a start on making things up to you.”

His lips move down from her neck and to her chest, his hands moving quickly to rid her of her bra.

All she could do is melt like putty, he was making her forget about how awful the day had been. For a brief moment a thought crosses her might about where they were, still at work. “Wait wait wait,” she pulls him off of her for a second, just as he was about to unhook her bra.

“What? What’s wrong?” Will asks, hoping he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“What if someone walks in on us?”

“Mac it’s almost two in the morning, everyone’s gone home.”

“What about the janitor?” 

“I highly doubt the janitor is just going to walk in here on us, besides he’s got plenty of places to clean before he makes it here.”

“Alright but if we put on a show for the janitor I’m blaming it on you then firing you.”

Mac then grabs his cheeks and begins to pull him in, “okay, I think I can live with that” he chuckles and meets her halfway in a kiss that starts slow but quickly becomes desperate.

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“So then, where are we going on our honeymoon?” Will questions as he runs his fingers through her hair.

The two were back at their apartment now, settled into bed after deciding on another round of Will making things up to her once her parents left. 

Will had made sure to send them to a close by hotel since it was late and they didn’t exactly have the room for them. They both checked in on Charlotte, who was sleeping soundly in her room. After that they were all over each other again, the idea of the honeymoon and having a romantic trip all to themselves really lit a fire under both of them. 

It was late but neither cared, they’d sleep another time. With both of them being so busy at work and trying to be the best parents they could for Charlotte, they didn’t have a whole lot of alone time anymore. That was why the honeymoon was so appealing, having time for just each other was wanted and needed by both of them. 

“Paris is the city of romance” Mac says softly and gently grazes her fingers along his chest. 

“Okay so I’ll get us a jet for Sunday to take us to Paris, and we’ll stay Sunday to sunday.”

“A jet?” she turns her head and glances up at him.

“If we’re going on our honeymoon there’s no way we’re flying coach.”

“I don’t know, that sounds very fancy to me. You know I don’t need all the glitz and glam, Billy, you’re all I’ll ever need.”

“You say that as if you don’t own about twenty million pairs of Jimmy Choos and who knows how many Louis Vuitton bags.”

Mac pulls herself up so that she can glare down at him, “those don’t count.” 

Will grabs her left hand and holds up the ring from Tiffany’s on her finger, “and what about this?”

“Hey you’re the one who got this for me… well, Scott’s assistant… but that’s besides the point.”

“Mac…”

“Okay okay so I like fancy things sometimes. What I’m trying to say is that you don’t have to do some sort of grand gesture to impress me” she pokes his chest, “I already love you more than you’ll ever know.”

“So no to the private jet then?” 

“Mmm no no we’ll still take the jet.” Will gives her a look then shakes his head, “you really get on my nerves you know that?”

Mac smiles, “I know, I’ve got to keep you on your toes somehow” she then leans down and gives him a kiss.

November 3rd definitely sucked, it had been an awful day. However, November 4th was already looking very good and it was all thanks to her favorite person in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> How many times can I end a one shot with them in bed? 🤔 lmao I promise I’ll branch out on my endings it just made the most sense to end it there.
> 
> Anyway, I will forever wonder how The Newsroom would’ve handled the 2016 election considering how much it changed politics and the news. This is only just a sliver into my take of how it would’ve gone.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this story! Thank you for taking the time to read it. As always, feel free to leave a kudos or feedback if you’d like! Until next time ❤️


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